I’m angry.
If you know me, you’ll know that I don’t lose my temper easily. But today, I’m angry. And I’m angry with a very irresponsibly hypnotist.
For some time, I’ve been aware of a guy calling himself “Hypnotistify”, “Louis Hypnosis”, and “Hypnotist__” online. He’s on YouTube, YouNow, and also apparently Skype. I’ve watched some of his sessions, and found them relatively entertaining.
Then, this popped up in my inbox:
First of all, I’m glad Chris (the subject in the video) is okay. What he experienced here is called an abreaction. It’s rare, but it can happen, and one of the most important parts of training as a hypnotist is understanding how to deal with it. Essentially, it’s about calmly reasurring them, bringing their awareness back into the room, and bringing them out of the hypnotic state before talking things through with them so they understand what happpened.
I’d recommend reading this, and this, if you want to know more about abreactions; but a quick search will uncover plenty of information.
Dealing with dodgy connections…
Now, I’ve had connections drop out on me more than once during online sessions. That’s why you always prepare by reminding the person you’re hypnotising that, if that does happen, they’ll simply come out of hypnosis completely and be able to deal with whatever they need to. Frankly, that’s a pretty basic – and, I think, obvious – safety measure for any online session.
If I thought that was all that was wrong here, though, I’d find this situation a lot easier to deal with. But it’s not.
Imcompetance, or worse?
Underneath the video is this comment, which was evidently posted by the so-called hypnotist ‘Louis’:

Let’s get one important thing out of the way first, it is true that you can’t get stuck in hypnosis. Even without the safety suggestion I mentioned before, a person would, sooner or later, simply come out of hypnosis and be completely back to normal.
Now, onto the thing that’s really got my back up. Read Louis’ comment again. He says, “I had my suspicions … so I decided to see how you’d react, at least you got a video out of it right?” What does that say to you?
To me, it says that he deliberately abandonned Chris in the middle of a hypnosis session. At best that’s unethical, at worst it’s simply dangerous. Not only that, but my understanding is that he saw Chris having a, really quite serious, abreaction and still made the decision to cut him off.
I can think of only two possible reasons for Louis’ actions:
- Incompetance
- Maliciousness
If it’s imcompetance, then this video is a shining example of why anyone who wants to practice hypnosis should seek out some form of training. Even if that training is simply reading books, or watching online tutorials, paying attention and learning what you’re doing can prevent situations like this happening.
If this is a case of pure maliciousness, on the other hand, which is what Louis’ implies in his own comment, then I really don’t know what to say except that I hope as many people as possible online see this and understand how dangerous working with an untrustworthy hypnotist can be.
Louis, if you’re reading this…
Please either stop hypnotising people altogether or go out and get some proper training. It will be better for you and far, far better for your subjects. If you don’t, and you keep behaving like you have here, it’s only a matter of time before somebody sues you and you end up in court. You don’t want that.
And to everyone who might be thinking about getting hypnotised online…
I implore you to please, please ask potential hypnotists about their training and experience. You should only ever agree to let yourself be hypnotised by someone who have talked to, got to know, trust, and know the real identity of. At the very least, any reputable hypnosist will allow you to see and hear them on Skype (or whatever app you use).
As Chris himself says in the video description, “Being hypnotized can be a super fun experience, but it can also be extremely scary if not done correctly.” Have fun, by all means, but please stay safe while you’re doing it.
Cheers,
M